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Brighton Fringe 2017

Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer: The Chap-Hop Decade

Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer

Genre: Cabaret, Character Stand up, Live Music, Music

Venue: Komedia Brighton

Festival:


Low Down

Hysterically charming celebration of Brighton’s Chap-Hop founder.

Review

In a packed and intimate soiree in the Komedia’s Studio Bar the dapper rapper joked that this was the original birthplace of Chap Hop, yet in that decade he’d never played the main room.

Deftly strumming on his banjolele, and accompanied by a backing track, the snazzily dressed performer played a mixture of classic hits such as All Hail The Chap (a pean to the style magazine), Timothy (a sly dig at DJ Tim Westwood’s speech patterns), The Crack Song, and More Kissing in Porn Please We’re British, alongside tracks from his latest album, There’s A Rumpus Going On.

Additional new numbers included a punk song about the National Trust, the hilarious We Need to Talk About Kanye and Still Can’t Play The Trombone (whereupon said musical instrument was produced and played reasonably well).

Interspersed between the tunes the perennially personable Mr. B. revealed his extensive hip hop knowledge revealing such gems as the original New York DJ Kool Herc’s real name was Clive. “Yes that’s right, hip hop was created by a chap called Clive.”

The inspired Bavarian beer hall/Ska rendition of Kraftwerk’s The Model had the whole audience swaying, but the largest applause was reserved for his medley numbers, The History of Hip Hop and the rave-inspired Songs For Acid Edward.

Finally he (w)rapped up with a homage to Bowie with a rendition of Starman for a sing-along encore which left the appreciative crowd with a warm fuzzy feeling.

The show was really over far too quickly, flying by in a flurry of amusing witticisms and observations and jaunty little numbers. Throughly recommended for fans of more gentile, intelligent, and quite saucy, hip hop and those who simply enjoy seeing a unique cabaret act performed with aplomb. Here’s to another decade of daft decadence!

Published